Homes

Simple steps to ensure home sale goes through

Great news -- you've just received an offer on your house. But purchaser has included a condition that the offer is subject to completion of a home inspection.

Fear not, for you can help to speed up and enhance the home inspection by following these simple suggestions:

1. Make sure water, electric and gas services are on, with gas pilot lights burning. If the property is heated by oil, make sure there's oil in the tank. If any fuses are missing, replace them, and if breakers are off, turn them on if possible. Home inspectors will not turn any of these on during an inspection.

2. Ensure pets won't hinder the inspection. Ideally, they should be removed from the premises or secured outside. Tell your agent about any pets at home.

3. Replace burned-out light bulbs to avoid a "light is inoperable" report that may suggest an electrical problem.

5. Clean or replace dirty HVAC air filters, making sure they are the correct size for the unit. You may want to consider having the heating and cooling system cleaned and inspected beforehand by a qualified HVAC technician.

6. Remove items, debris or personal property from around the foundation. The inspector will not move these items and it will limit the inspection of the foundation and exterior of the house, which could raise some concern.

7. Remove items blocking access to HVAC equipment, electric service panels, water heaters, attics and crawl spaces. Again the inspector in most cases will not move these items for liability reasons.

8. Unlock areas the inspector must access such as attic doors or hatches, closets, fence gates and crawl spaces. If you don't want to leave them unlocked, make sure keys are available to unlock them.

9. Trim tree limbs to within three metres of the roof and shrubs from the house to allow access.

10. Attend to broken or missing items such as doorknobs, locks and latches, windowpanes, screens, gutters, downspouts and chimney caps.

11. If the property has a wood-burning fireplace or wood stove, make sure they are clean and do not have them operating at the time of the inspection. Also consider having the fireplace or wood stove chimney cleaned and inspected by a W.E.T.T.-certified chimney sweep before the inspection.

12. Home inspections take between two to four hours, so you should plan to be out of the house for that length of time if at all possible.

Checking these areas before the inspection will help the inspection go smoother, with fewer concerns to delay closing.

You should view the above as an investment in selling your property. Have any bills or invoices for work or improvements such as cleaning and inspection for the chimney and HVAC system available at the time of the inspection. Both your agent and the home inspector will thank you.

Rob Parker is a registered home inspector with the Ontario Association of Home Inspectors and certified master inspector with the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors who does home inspections in the London area. Call him at ThameSpec Home Inspection Services at 519-857-7101, e-mail thamespec@rogers.com, or visit www.thamespec-inspections.com.